Confidential Report: Fahad Yasin, Chief of Staff of Villa Somalia

Confidential Report: Fahad Yasin, Chief of Staff of Villa Somalia

Waagacusub.com - In the subsequent months, all the concerns regarding Fahad Yasin have come to fruition. Since taking charge, Fahad has masterminded events that created political and security turmoil that undermined regional states and the credibilit

Waagacusub.com - In the subsequent months, all the concerns regarding Fahad Yasin have come to fruition. Since taking charge, Fahad has masterminded events that created political and security turmoil that undermined regional states and the credibility of the Farmaajo-Kheyre administration. He waged a political campaign to remove regional presidents and opposition political figures, using illicit Qatari funds he laundered as well as international community funds designed to support security and development programs.

Sadiq Omar, Commander of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (Habar Gedir)

Designated Global Terrorist Ties:

Fahad Yasin is an alleged member, close associate and facilitator for Al-Shabaab

Fahad traveled to Yemen in the 1990s and attended Iman University, a school attended by members of al-Qa’ida, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremist groups.

Fahad travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1990s with former Al-Itihad Al-Islam leaders.

Fahad allegedly attended Al-Qa’ida affiliated terrorist camps with AIAI fighters that included Ahmed Abdi Godane a.k.a. Abu Mukhtar Abu Zubair, the late Emir of Al-Shabaab who killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2014, Aden Hashi Farah Ayrow, the late Al-Shabaab Military Commander who was killed in a U.S. airstrike, Ibrahim Haji Jama, the late senior Al-Shabaab leader, Mukhtar Robow, the Co-founder of Al-Shabaab and former senior leader, and Abdirisaq Abdi Saleh a.k.a. Saleh Al-Somali, the former Senior Al-Qa’ida leader and the groups head of external operations who was killed in a U.S. strike. Background: Mr. Fahad Yasin haji Dahir, the Chief of Staff of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.

member of Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya (AIAI), a jihadist militant organization, which was designated by the

Fahad was a United States and the United Kingdom as Foreign Terrorist Organization before the group disbanded

itself in 2006. The U.S. alleged that Osama Bin Laden financed AIAI and sent fighters to Somalia to

help train them. The group’s leadership included Aden Ayrow, Ahmed Godane, and Ibrahim Jama, as

well as Ahmed Umar, the current Emir and his Deputy Mahad Karate.

Fahad was fighting for AIAI militant faction led by radical cleric and former Colonel Hassan Dahir

Aweys. The group was accused of massacring innocent civilians in Gedo and Sanaag regions.

Aweys, the mentor of Ayrow, Godane and Robow was added to Specially Designated Global

Terrorist list for his ties to Al-Qa’ida. Aweys later became the leader of Al-Shabaab until 2013, when

he was forced out after internal struggle.

Fahad left AIAI after the group was military defeated, and travelled to Yemen to further his religious

studies at Al-Iman University in Sana’a. Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, a Specially Designated

Global Terrorist and the UN sanctioned religious adviser of Osama Bin Laden founded the university.

The university was accused of providing radical extremist studies. The notorious American al-Qaeda

figure, such as Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American, a senior Al-Qa’ida External Operational Leader

of Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011 also attended Al-

Iman University.

Fahad did not complete his university studies in Yemen. After leaving Yemen, little information is

available about Fahad whereabouts for several years. Western intelligence suspect that he was in

Afghanistan as part of a group of Somali fighters that included Aden Ayrow, Mukhtar Robow, Fuad

Shongale, Mahad Karate, and Ibrahim Haji Jama that were sent by Hassan Dahir Aweys to

Afghanistan for training at Al-Qa’ida training camps. Ayrow, Robow, Godane and many other former

militants’ fighters escaped from Afghanistan to Somalia after the September 11 terrorist attacks and

before the United States invasion.

Fahad reappeared in the early 2000s and started working as a journalist. Fahad received support

and mentoring from Farah Abdulkadir, an influential close relative, and former minister and advisor of

former Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Farah, a member of leader of Somali Muslim

Brotherhood with ties to Muslim Brotherhood in Qatar helped Fahad land a position in Qatar-based Al

Jazeera Arabic.

In 2006, Fahad became the head of Al-Jazeera’s Somalia bureau, exclusively reporting and

cheerleading the rise the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) led then by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the future

president of Somalia and Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former Fahad mentor who became the leader of

Shongale and Mukhtar Robow as well as many Somali fighters who escaped from Afghanistan and they group becomes the core leadership of ICU’s militant wing Harakat Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahideen.

Although Fahad and Farah were members of two different radical ideologies (AIAI and Somali their kinship and clan affiliation brought them even closer to each other.

After the ICU’s defeat in late 2006, Fahad remained in Mogadishu, providing Al-Jazeera unfettered access and exclusive reports on nascent Al-Shabaab insurgency, interviewing senior members and filing reports on the group’s growing insurgency against the weak Somali government supported by Ethiopia in 2006 and later by the African Union Mission to Somalia. The biased Al-Jazeera reports became the primary ideological platform for radical recruitment and funding that fueled the rise of Al- Shabaab in Somalia.

Fahad became Al-Jazeera Mogadishu bureaus work gained the attention of Qatar’s pro-islamist leadership and Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2012, Fahad secured millions of dollars of Qatari money to support the campaign of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, an obscure candidate many though was not a serious candidate. These illicit funds Qatari funds enabled Fahad to buy votes to secure Mohamud’s election over the incumbent president Sheikh Sheriff Sheikh Hassan. However, Fahad miscalculated his sudden political fortune because they thought they could exert influence on the new president.

For instance, Fahad wanted President Hassan Sheikh to select former Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo to be the prime minister in 2012. Farmajo was someone he could manipulate and influence. But President Mohamoud and his Damul-Jadiid clique had a different candidate for the position. Fahad attempted again, suggesting Farmaajo to President Mohamud who was closer to UAE. The president selected Omar Abdirashid, disappointing Fahad again, leading to private political divorce with President Mohamud and Farah Abdulqadir. For the next two years, many allies assumed that Fahad was in a political wilderness, however, he was making political and financial plans supported by Qatari illicit funds. .

The 2017 presidential elections presented a new opportunity for Fahad to become relevant again in Somalia. He used Qatari funds to fund the presidential campaign of Farmaajo against the incumbent Hassan Sheikh. Fahad recruited Hassan Ali Kheyre, the future Prime Minister, Thabit Mohamed, the future Governor of Banadir and Mayor of Mogadishu, Jamal Mohamed Hassan, the future Minister of Planning as well as Mustaf Dhuxulow, a member of the parliament and former Minister of Information who were all President Mohamud insiders, providing sensitive and secret campaign information to Fahad based at Jazeera Hotel and Farmaajo’s campaign based in a rented house next to the Jazeera.

Muslim Brotherhood),

Fahad who learned from his past experience and had his own plan and view of governance. Soon

after Farmaajo’s election, Fahad established a transition team based at Jazeera consisting of

him to Jazeera and controlling all access to the new president, becoming the gatekeeper. He

presented Kheyre his choice for prime minister and established a selection process for ministers and

senior staff, where he vetted candidates first, preferring family, friends, allies and loyalists over more

qualified candidates, making him the de-facto kingmaker in Mogadishu.

President Farmaajo selected Hassan Ali Kheyre, an inexperience former Norwegian Refugee Council

country leader and former executive of a British oil firm majority owned by Russian Billionaire,

accused of bribing Somali officials over more qualified and experience candidates with impressive

political and business background.

Over the next month, the transition team led by Fahad received selected candidates they determined

can be influenced and / or coerced and will be loyal to Fahad. They also doled out favors to members

who they saw as important pillars of influence in the lower parliament and the Senate. Members and

Senators who delivered block of clan votes were given preferential treatment, establishing a process

that favored nepotism, cronyism and corruption. Farmaajo and Kheyre signed off on the Fahad

selected ministers.

In May, President Farmaajo appointed Fahad to be the Chief of Staff of Villa Somalia. The position is usually given to experienced administrators with no political agenda, whose job is to execute the president’s political agenda. It was concerning to many Somali political observers to see Fahad Yasin, a former AIAI and ICU member and fighter with a long history and ties to Al-Shabaab leaders Hassan Dahir Aweys, and Mukhtar Robow as well as the late Al-Shabaab leaders Ahmed Godane, Aden Ayrow, and Ibrahim Haji Jama, who were all Specially Designated Global Terrorists, in such a critical position. Many western governments were very concerned that, judging from history and ties to Al-Shabaab and Qatar, Fahad would push his own political agenda against in defiance to the president he now serves.

In the subsequent months, all the concerns regarding Fahad Yasin have come to fruition. Since taking charge, Fahad has masterminded events that created political and security turmoil that undermined regional states and the credibility of the Farmaajo-Kheyre administration. He waged a political campaign to remove regional presidents and opposition political figures, using illicit Qatari funds he laundered as well as international community funds designed to support security and development programs.

The campaigns included a plan to replace the Hirshabelle president. Fahad paid $3 million for no confidence vote that successfully ousted the president of the region. Fahad also spent $5 million to oust the presidents of Galmudug and Southwest regions, paying with members of the federal and regional parliaments as well as the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).

The Galmudug and Southwest plans failed because President’s Haaf and Sharif respectively had more financial and security resources to fend off the allies of Fahad. The attempts in Galmudug and Southwest backfired on Fahad and created mistrust between regional and federal institutions.

The failed attempts led to the creation of a regional coalition against to defend regional interests against what the regional presidents see as out of control and dangerous federal government. The regional presidents in several meetings with Farmaajo expressed their outrage, concerns and disappointment, directly telling him that they see Fahad as a threat and a source of political destabilization. The regional presidents also expressed similar concerns with the International Community, asking the United States to impose sanctions on Fahad Yasin, whom they regard as a spoiler impeding political progress in Somalia.